Archive for August, 2012

On Poe’s blog, he says, “it would be a nice little change if everyone who assists in running down and defending an offensive plex were rewarded with a cut of the loyalty points.”

Right??!

The day after Inferno Almity and I were mucking around in frigs in a plex and someone came in on us within the very last-minute of taking the plex. While fighting, he got outside of the timer while I happened to stay within range. I got the LP, he did not, but we were essentially doing the same thing, fighting the same target, defending the same plex. It made no sense for one person to get LP and not the other due to 5KM.

Before Inferno, the only thing a player got from plexing was victory points (VP) which increased your standings, and VP is rewarded from anywhere within the plex. So it makes absolutely no sense that LP wouldn’t be rewarded in the same manner.

From the CSM Summit: “CCP Soundwave expressed concern that this is just going to lead to fleets putting an interceptor on the button and waiting on the warp-in, and wants to leave the mechanic as it is for the time being and see how things play out.”

To which Poe says, “Soundwave’s response brings up the question, how often do the developers play EVE Online?”

Spot on.

It is very strange that using the most common fight tactics in a plex is somehow considered wrong by CCP standards.

I don’t doubt that CCP has toons in all of the militias, but I wonder do they actually play them? Watching the trolling in militia chat while being docked up doesn’t really make you a militia pilot. If they were in the fleets they would understand, I think, the necessity of warp-in fighting, and they would then reward LP for those inside the plex. Not just the schmuck who gets tasked with sitting on the timer.

Another post I think is interesting is on Susan Black’s blog about cyno jammers in FW. She brings up a lot of good questions and makes a lot of good points. I’m not sure where I stand on it yet. On one hand, I would like to keep null sec alliances hotdropping on a whim, on the other, I think it takes away something from the excitement of using caps in FW.

Every time I’ve used mine, there’s always a question in the back of my mind…who else knows we are dropping caps? And what are they going to do about it. It’s a bit thrilling.

She also suggests adding a module that “prevents pilots from lighting cynos.” I do think that’s a better idea instead of a system wide cyno-jammer.

However, I think I like the element of danger involved when using caps. That is a lot of ISK to the average FW player to lose, and it creates one hell of a bragging-rights kill mail for those who killed a cap.

So at the moment, I think I’m anti-cynojamming, but feel free to convince me otherwise!

What do you think of the Inferno changes for FW? Is it everything you’d hoped it would be?

Of course not. It was half of what I wanted it to be. Many of the elements players have demanded for years finally made it into the feature, from payouts for plexing and PvP kills, to system upgrades, bug fixes, and an overhauled (and gorgeous) new user interface through which to view the war.

There’s still the other half of work to be done – the NPC’s inside the plexing need an overhaul to encourage PvP fits instead of speedtankers, and should be balanced so that there’s no advantage for one faction because of the combination of damage and EWAR. We still need better system upgrades. We need the payout system and warzone tiers to be balanced so that they don’t crush and ruin the fun of those that fall behind in the war. EVERY faction warfare pilot deserves a “living wage” whether they win or lose, I firmly believe that. I had advised CCP to tone down the penalties before they deployed Inferno, but they wanted to test it anyways, I think we see now that we could have a lot more fights if the penalties for losing weren’t so harsh that they push people out of the warzone to seek isk elsewhere. I’ll once again be asking CCP to go back to what I told them before.

The good news that CCP has increased the size of the team handling Faction Warfare, several of which I am in daily contact with on Skype. This level of developer access while working on the feature I love is a godsend, and will allow me to make sure that player interests are protected at every step of the process as we work on the next project cycle. This is a major advantage I lacked when Inferno was first released, even though I was grateful CCP was at least starting out on the roadmap I gave them last November.

With all of the null sec alliances joining FW, do you feel Faction War has retained it’s uniqueness as a ‘fight club’ since Inferno or has it morphed into something closer resembling null sec?

Well, the stakes are certainly higher, and that’s what we asked for. We now have a reason to take space (its fun to boot another faction from their home) and theres a lot of money on the line for the winner. This has worked exactly as intended in terms of revitalizing the war and getting more people excited about Faction Warfare, but it has certainly challenged the players to grow along with new mechanics.

The thing that we all know has transformed the most is the tone amongst the community – the acid and bile that is slung around puts anything we heard pre-inferno to shame. We’ve moved from record unity (during the build up to the election) towards behavior that resembles the same kind of herd mentality we all hate about being a part of a large nullsec alliance. The difference between Faction Warfare and 0.0 however, is that we utterly fail at the “meta-game”. Somewhere, someone got this idea that sexual harassment, hateful language, and smear campaigns somehow constituted “metagaming” as if it had even the slightest chance of helping a group to victory. What is has done instead is reinforce the stereotype of Faction Warfare being a bunch of noob scrubs that don’t know how to meta their way out of a cardboard box, and its a tremendous setback for all of us that are working hard to get everyone else in the game to take Faction Warfare seriously as a group of cool players.

I’m all for smacktalk and incredibly competitive gaming. I want factions throwing their entire might at each other militarily, and not holding back. I want there to be a friendly rivalry, no doubt.

Its when players cross the line and call each other a bad person for simply saying that your internet spaceship enemy sucks that everything sinks into the gutter fast. If Susan write a nasty blog about how the Amarr fail (I guarantee you it won’t be the last), than write a nasty blog back about how the Minmatar fail. If she calls out Fweddit, feel free to defend your Empire by calling out Late Night Alliance. THAT is the sort of fair turnabout that is sorely lacking right now.

We have to move back to that place where we can taunt our enemies while still being friends with each other – and that is something that WE are responsible for as leaders of the community. I’ve heard so often recently that it’s “just a few bad apples” or that “they can’t really be controlled”, but this is a cop-out on the part of FW leadership. We all set the tone, regardless of what CCP gives us in terms of mechanics. I’ve been encouraged recently by seeing many FW leaders stand up and say “Enough is enough, children!” so hopefully we’re back on the right track.

What do you hope will happen for the winter expansion in regards to FW?

NPC content overhaul inside the plexes. Adjusted payouts so that the losing factions still have a viable income. And end to market spiking and real consequence if you live at a lower tier most of the time. Notifications for when plexes are entered and taken – let players run, but not hide. Rollbacks of the button time to discourage plex bouncing to evade PvP. An end to LP payouts when systems are taken vulnerable. An end to system contested percentage “buffers” above and beyond vulnerability. Batch purchasing in the LP stores. Better system upgrades. Better rewards for PvP kills. All of these items need to be handled first and foremost – above all else. Nail these, and there’s plenty of other items that could be built on. But these iterations are the bread and butter of the expansion as far as I’m concerned.

What do you most enjoy about being CSM?

Direct access to CCP and their cooperation in seeing that these items get worked on. It’s wonderful to not have to nail up posts and pray for a response, and to be able to have a meaningful dialogue with them about the game on a daily basis. This is the prize I want future CSM hopefuls to chase after, and its been fantastically rewarding without ever having stepped foot in Iceland myself.

What is the most frustrating thing about being CSM?

Players that pretend that they care enough about the game to stamp their feet and complain and cause a scene, or to attack me for my work, but don’t care enough to sit down and have a respectful, well-informed discussion with the one person that is in a position to help them achieve what they want. There are a lot of fools right now that are so wrapped up in whether I’m screwing them over that they are wasting the precious time we have left before CCP stops working on Faction Warfare again for a while trying to discredit me or mope about how they don’t have anyone that cares about their interests. What they don’t realize is that anything I implement that “screws the Amarr” screws me over the minute that the Amarr old combines forces with Nulli, Fweddit, an Hun Reloaded to take Tier 5. It’s time to drop the stupid rhetoric about “Amarr bias” or “Minmatar bias” and just talk about what makes for good gameplay.

How has being CSM affected yourself, your corporation, and your game play?

It’s been isolating, more than anything else. I’ve had members of my corporation call me out because I have less time to devote to corp management now that I’m on the CSM, and I’ve had members of my own Alliance and faction attack me for some of the positions I’ve taken publicly regarding Faction Warfare changes (like the reset to the war zone I advocated for). I’ve had people who I thought were friends going into the election turn on me because they didn’t like how Inferno turned out and blamed me for screwing their faction over.

I’ve had less time to play and socialize and fleet up and hang out, and much of the time I do spend playing the game it feels like its taking me away from the myriad blog articles, forum posts, and personal conversations that the community expects me to keep up with on a regular basis. It’s all very taxing, though it’s also very much what I expected going into this. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to just cut the internet cable to my house and leave EVE entirely for a year. But this is an incredible opportunity, to be able to directly help fix up the game I love for the community I love, and I’m in this till the end.

What advice do you have for someone just joining FW?

Be aggressive. You WILL be treated like a spy initially, blow it off, stay calm, and persist. Use your minimap, find where the action is at, fly around, take plexes, tag along fleets and ask if you can help. Whatever you do, don’t sit in station asking for fleets in militia chat all day. This will work some of the time, but for the most part the best way to enjoy Faction Warfare is to find a group of friends or a corporation, and get involved. Don’t expect for the militia to just welcome you with open arms, hand you a uniform, a ship, and an assignment. It’s a cold harsh universe, even in Faction Warfare, and there will be a bit of hazing and distrust (that’s OUR responsibility as veterans to address), but those that are genuinely new, genuinely interested in helping, and who genuinely make the effort will always find a home.

Thank you for the interview, any parting thoughts?

Faction Warfare pilots, new and old alike – represent the community with some pride. Put your game faces on. I want to see ugliness on the battlefield, not ugliness in the blogs and ugliness in the forums. Sure, it’ll go on regardless in small amounts, but I really enjoy showing you guys off to the EVE Universe. I want to be an apologist for the community as often as possible – I was so incredibly proud that everyone came together to elect a representative (even if it hadn’t been me) because it proved everyone in the game wrong who said that Faction Warfare pilots were too childish or animatistic to ever get along well enough to achieve anything.

It was cross-factional friendship and teamwork that got our feature CSM representation, got us a pair of Faction Warfare expansions, got us an incredible Titan kill, and it will be that same friendship and mutual respect (if we can get back to that place) that people will know and remember our community by for years to come. We have so much going for us, and so much work left to be done, let’s not blow it for some cheap momentary lulz.

“The personal attacks and slander thrown from all sides is what ruins games and turns players away. Faction Warfare has become nothing more than a mud slinging contest to see who can ruin who’s credibility and moral first. I get there is a place for meta-gaming, but this is beyond that. We’re all here to play and have a good time, and we need each other, like it or not. Without Amarr, the Minmatar would have no fights, and same for Minmatar, no Amarr, no fights. No one is going to say that faction chest beating or bragging shouldn’t happen, but the attacks at individuals and specific corporations and alliances are childish. And those doing so should be ashamed to have stooped so low.”

Another new blog on the FW scene, ‘Overheat Everything’, found here. (note to the owner, I would like it a whole lot more if the font wasn’t that pale gray, makes it harder to read.)

One of my beloved FC’s, Almity, wrote on his blog here an article ‘In love and war’ in response to Susan Black’s last post, ‘All is fair‘.

I want to say to everyone who is currently sexually harassing Susan Black that you’re going too far. Smack talking and trolling is a valued part of the game, I get that. She trolls, you guys respond. But knock off the sexual harassment. You’re going too far and you know it. The game is supposed to be safe for 13 year old players, so keep that in mind when you are trolling local. Little 13 year old girls could be out there reading that.

Anyhow, back to other blogs I want to share. We have a couple of role playing blogs out there with some interesting stories:

Ugleb does a lot of in character posts on his blog, here. I’m a big fan!

I’ll pimp out my own RP blog here, I’m doing a story involving a couple of Amarr pilots, it’s been fun writing it so far!

And ugh, I found a really good rp blog the other day but I can’t find the link to it, once I do, I’ll share it with you guys! (and if it was your blog that I commented on, please please please mail me the link to it)

“First on Hans’ list is the infamous Complex (plex) spawning bug. Hans explained that this needs to be addressed immediately, by June if at all possible.

CCP Ytterbium explained that the developers thought that this was fixed, and were surprised to hear that the fix wasn’t yet working properly. It would be helpful for them to have as detailed instructions as possible to aid in recreating the bug.”

How can that even be possible? How could he think that bug was fixed when there have been endless complaints for literal years about it? That really just blows my mind. How can someone be so out of touch with the problems of FW and yet be tasked for fixing it?

Blows my mind, really.

I am almost tempted to go to the forums and dig up all the countless threads from over the years asking (begging) for someone to please fix it, but I have this strange medical affliction that makes my eyes roll and I burn with the desire to bang my head against a wall after reading more than ten minutes of them. (I hate the forums k?)

So I’m thinking, maybe ole Yitterbom is the same way. Maybe he hates the forums too, maybe that’s why he didn’t know what was going on in FW. (Does he even play in FW??)

Apparently Yitter doesn’t Twitter either.

So how does one reach him?? How are we to report bugs and express concerns and give ideas if the most obvious of broken things lay neglected for years because someone ‘thought it was fixed’?

The good news is that we have Hans Jagerblitzen, a CSM member who actually plays in FW and has since he started playing EVE.

Obvious by the CSM7 Minutes published today, Hans is taking our concerns to CCP.

The bad news is that a lot of Amarrians simply do not trust Hans because he is a Dirty Mim. And I really have no idea how the Caldari and Gallente feel about him.

What we need is some sort of representation per militia, a couple of people from each corner of FW that players can feel comfortable talking with, discussing ideas etc. Those people can then speak with our CSM representative and possibly CCP themselves.

Basically a smaller, personalized version of CSM but just for FW. We could vote for our faction reps. Mind you this isn’t something that CCP need to endorse (though it would be fabulous if they did). We could do our own grassroots thing.

I think something like this needs to happen quickly, because they are starting to work on the winter expansion.

Recently back from her hiatus, just in time to see the Amarr reclaim Kourm, she has started her trashtalkingpropaganda blogging once more.

It’s funny really, I found Susan’s blog by happenstance, long before she was in the Minmatar militia, when she was somewhere out in nullsec. It was an interesting read, she posted a lot of informative pieces about how to do marketing and other helpful tidbits. I didn’t even know it was hers, though I vaguely knew who she was because she was once in Amarr militia.

Once she returned to the militia, I was actually pleased to see her blogging about FW. Her earlier posts were less trollish, still more informative. At the time, FW was the neglected step-child of CCP, always cast aside for their favored children, ‘Null sec’ and ‘Care Bear’.

So yes, it was wonderful to have another person out there promoting Faction War.

However, instead of promoting FW, she started trolling and outright lying. It became an amusing tounge-in-cheek read.

Most of Amarr know that her blog is nothing more than a troll fest, but since we do have tons of new members within the militias, I just wanted to make clear that you guys know that Susan is a liar and her latest post proves it.

I’ll start with:

In regards to Fweddit: “they have made little to no impact on the war zone.”

Wrong! Before Nulli joined militia, Amarr had already made vulnerable over 20-something systems, mostly due to the Fweddit plexers. Fweddit runs fleets, joins general militia fleets, plexes, and have been very active within the war zone. Their directorship works very closely with other militia corps. Also, when we took Kourm, it was a Fweddit hero-pilot who dropped a dread. Rina Kondur, one of Fweddit’s directors, has done amazing work for the militia.

She goes on to claim that if Amarr doesn’t reach war zone control 5 “it would be a huge blow to the Amarr,” and “the impact on their morale could cripple the faction for a long time to come.”

Wrong! Since Inferno, Amarr has been fighting an uphill battle. We have had to deal with fewer numbers, less sov, Minmatar who bugged plexes, etc. And yet we stayed, we brought the fight night after night just like pre-Inferno. We did this at war zone control one, have been doing it at level one and if we never hit level five, we will be fine. It will not cripple anything at all.

She predicts that if we do hit war zone control five, “Amarr’s credibility will be irreversibly damaged.”

That just made me giggle. Like, seriously a fit of giggles. When has Amarr ever HAD any credibility?

Let me bitter-vet here for a moment. Pre-Inferno, all of us were aware of the changes to come, but at the time, the Minmatar vastly outnumbered us. They had the superior numbers to flip systems (and please remember that it only took six hours to flip a system in those days), and they had several dickhead pilots who would go out and bug plexes so that they wouldn’t respawn if we were trying to plex, so it was nearly impossible to recapture a system. And please don’t forget how easy it was for a Mim to solo-speed-tank a plex in an unfit ship because of the rat imbalances.

So that is how Inferno began, with the Amarr severely crippled. If we tried to explain this on the forums, it was ‘omg Amarr stop whining’. Or ‘plex more, fight harder’. If we tried to convince our CSM representative of this, we were told ‘CCP knows and doesn’t care’.

After Inferno, a few ballsy corps and alliances did join Amarr for ‘more wartargets to shoot’ like Fweddit and Moar Tears, etc. And once they started to realize that everything we were claiming was true, once they started to speak out, they were then branded as ‘drinking the kool-aide’.

So you see, we never had any credibility to begin with. We don’t give two fucks what other people think. What we do care about is the fights, and we’ve been bringing them. 🙂

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Sovereignty Wars

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